Saturday, November 5, 2016

Marathon Finished!

I'd like to thank all of you who prayed for me. My feet did in fact hurt for over half the race. At one point I prayed to God to relieve the pain. Soon after my lower legs and feet went numb. No joke. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but God's answers to prayers are far wiser than ours would be. Although the feet issue slowed me down a bit, I was still able to achieve both of my primary goals: 1) finish the race, and 2) finish fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2018.

Boston has set standards based upon age and gender. Males ages 45-49 have to complete a marathon in under 3 hours, 25 minutes. This morning I semi-staggered across the finish line in 3 hours, 20 minutes, 33 seconds. Woo-hoo! I came in third in my age group out of 169, and 53rd overall out of 2225.

This has been a journey that began for me in February 2015. That's when I decided to live a more healthy life. One of my first goals was to finish last year's RnR Marathon. However, as I've chronicled previously, the weather last November was so hot and humid on race day that the directors and city officials cut the race short. Ugh. For the last 365 days I've anticipated today.

God delivered an added bonus. Earlier this week it was hot, with high temperatures in the mid 80's. However, this morning it was about 55 degrees with low humidity. I had been praying for weather like that for weeks. Thank you God for answering. It made for perfect race weather.

Additionally, this morning was even more fun because my wife Alice and daughter Mary tag-teamed the half marathon in relay form. Mary ran the first seven miles, and Alice walked the final six (she couldn't run due to an ankle sprain from five weeks ago). They were waiting for me at the finish line. It was awesome.